Deployment and Imaging Group

For ITMS 8.0 we found that the Task Server token does not work really well with unknown computers that boot into WinPe.

Thus have modiefied the default query as one of them

Select vt.name from vItem vt
join
Inv_Client_Task_Resources ctr on ctr.ClientTaskServerGuid = vt.Guid And ctr._ResourceGuid = '%COMPUTERID%'

SELECT vComputer.Name
FROM [Symantec_CMDB].[dbo].[Inv_Client_Task_Resources] left join vComputer ON ClientTaskServerGuid = vComputer.Guid
Where _ResourceGuid = '%COMPUTERID%'

So I "think" I've gotten these installed correctly, but I'm unable to then use the new tokens supposedly installed.

I can execute the sample script "Test to Verify Task & Token Functionality" just fine.  Return the name of my task server just as it is supposed to.

My issue, then when i try to create my own script using the same %taskserver% token, I get failures, wish errors such as "file path does not exist".  I'm just doing simple things like trying to copy a folder full of file from my task server to a PC being deployed.  So I'm using a path similar to \\%taskserver%\source to "c:\destination".

private message me and we'll work on that offline.  It's been a while since I've looked at that.

I really need to separate all of these and release a new version.  <sigh>  Motivation.  There has to be something...  LOL

Hello, I am trying to get the Token Replacement sample to work and it says I need to "Provide the source and destination files for token replacement."

There are no samples currently planned by Dev for 7.5.

Most of this works on MP1, though i'm re-releaseing these differently because of problems people have had.

As for the SOI samples, I don't know how to make them work due to current limitations in what an SOI is and the task requirements.

Keep watching.  As soon as I can I'll update this and a few connections on this site.

The Job to configure the PXE services certainly works on MP1.

Has anyone tried this on MP1?

Thomas any information to if the next 7.5 release will contain these jobs?

Any information on adding the soi jobs back in or details on them in another matter?

The MSI does very little.  It runs aexconfig against the config/XML file in the samples, as follows:

%program files%\Altiris\Notification Server\bin\aexconfig" /configure "%program files%\Altiris\deployment\Altiris.DSSamples.xml"

These files can be extracted from the MSI using a tool like 7zip.

That's it.  We simply wanted to make it easier.  However, if the installer isn't working for ANY reason, simply run the install manually.  For that matter, WHERE you store the xml files is not relevant, so long as you can access them with aexconfig.

I get the following message when I try to install Deployment Samples:

Another version of this product is already installed.  Installationof this version cannot continue.  To configure or remove the exisiting version of this product, use Add/Remove Programs on the Control Panel.

I have looked in Add/Remove Programs to uninstall pervious version, but Deployment Samples was not installed.   I know I did download Deployment Samples for version 7.0, but not for 7.1.

Thanks,

Joseph

I didnt mean to post that comment above here.  I meant to start  new string. Disregard.

Wolfpack,

Are you trying to copy default user info using copy profile?  If so, dont boot into audit mode. this caused a lot of problems for me.  Just enable admin account and do your changes.

Also, you shouldn't need to touch sysprep on the computer itself - use "prepare for image capture"

if that doesn't work, I'd try same steps but don't use win7 SP1 since symantec doesn't officially support it yet (I had weird join domain issues when using SP1, but it may have been also because I was doing captures in audit mode).

Also, how are you trying to rename computers (I'm looking for tips on this).. thanks

Has anyone successfully captured and redeployed a SYSPREP image?

The project I support has a requirement to capture an image from a Dell M6400 or M6500 Laptop with Win7 Pro, deploy that to another computer, sysprep the image on the new computer and then deploy that image to 125+ M6400 and M6500 laptops on a regular basis.

To date I have not been successful.  I can run the sysprep on the laptop from the MS directory then capture the image and push that image back out.  But it does not set the name correctly or rejoin the computer to the domain.

Also I have run into an issue that just capturing an image from a computer will corrupt the Agent.

I have been working with Symantec Tech support but it is moving slow. 

You can find the downloadable file next to the green arrow at the bottom of the post. The formatting of the page was temporarily messed up - that's fixed now and it's more obvious where the attached file is.

Thanks
Cheryl

I am trying to download the Deployment Server samples, but I am unable to find the dowload link.

Thomas,

Thanks for your time spent developing this. We often use this sample pack as a quick start to get DS 7.1 up and running for both POCs and production environments. Your hard work is appreciated!

Ahhh - I've now updated the actual file attached to the list - and pulled the old one.  I'm deleting the one on this post now.  All updates and such are now included in the original post above.

For those of you who were waiting for it - ImageX is now included.  For those of you who wanted SOI fixed, - sorry - I can't do that.  I explain that above in known issues.

Thanks admins for restoring my right to edit!!

Hi Thomas - I've restored your "edit"... the formatting looks a little odd in places but you'll be able to add the updated file.

Thanks
Cheryl

Is there any way to leverage the new %SERIALNUM% token to set computer name to serial number in WinPE or post image?

I did a LOT of hunting, and there's no realistic way to fix the SOI task because of the error checking they built into the task, along with some weird ways associated resources are getting created, so I'm going to pull it.  Sorry folks.  I'll add in the ImageX one though, for whatever it's worth.  It's just a script.

I'll try to get an update out this week.

For the information those asking to me :)

I had the same problem. The Event Viewer logs indicated that it was trying to call aexconfig witout quotes around the full path.

Try opening a command window with admin rights and running:

"C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\bin\aexconfig" /configure "C:\Program Files\Altiris\Deployment\Config\Samples\Altiris.DSSamples.xml"

When I install the package,  The following error occurred.                        

error 1721. there  is a problem with this windows installer package. A program required for this install to complete could not be run. contact your support personnel or package vendor.

you should see:

DSSamples_x64.zip

in large type and that should be a link. It's just worked for me.

I'm missing something here. I'm logged in, I can see other download posts and there are obvious download links... I'm not seeing it here... what am I missing?

So I'm assuming you want more than that.  Can you be more specific of what you need?  If you look at the shared tasks, you'll see a very simple partition disk job we use for the SOI of Windows 7.

As for a SOI of XP, it's almost identical to the one for Win7.  I'm not quite sure of the value-added for making samples for products that, though still used in some environments, are almost out-of-support by Microsoft.  The vast majority of installations today are Windoes 7, which is why I focused on that.  I'll consider the XP option though.

Management of Drivers?  I'm not sure I follow you here.  DeployAnywhere (DA) is our driver-management tool and the functionality of DA is already included in many of our built-in tasks.  Additionally, I have a script for a manual-run of DA in case the built-in or "attached" tasks don't work the way you want them to.  So, I'm not quite sure what we're missing.

Can you please explain yourself a bit more?

Thanks!

1, Scripted install for windows xp

2, Managment of Drivers (e.g. MDT 2010)

3, Partition of disk Job (e.g. MDT 2010)

Soooo, essentially a generic replacement for what you aleady have.  No, the product itself has not had that feature added to it yet.

As a slightly better answer, let me explain it this way.

The samples are ... samples of how to use the product as currently designed and do not add any functionality beyond that.  Obviously, there is added functionality because we created some scripts for you, but they're still just scripts using a normal existing script task.  New functionality is only being added through feature requests, and then the samples would be modified to reflect the new functionality.

Perfect example:

I'm currently testing an ImageX script.  Does DS support ImageX?  Not really, though you can do it.  Did 6.9?  Uh, sort of.  It had a script like the one I'm making.  However, in reviewing the sample ImageX script in DS 6.x, I realized it calls BCDEdit, which we have a task for, so I pulled that out of the batch file and called the task instead.  It also does a partition set via cmd script, but we have a partition task, so I pulled that portion of the script.  As the product changes, we'll change how we do things in our samples, but the samples only reflect current functionality.

Does that make sense?

Please leave this "space" for direct comments either about the samples, or requests FOR the samples, rather than how-to's for the rest of the product.  Does that make sense?  Had this question been in the Forum, then a billion people would see it instead of just those who are glancing at this one.

On the flip side, if there was a need for a script to pull in drivers, for instance...  One of the things I've considered doing, but decided against when I looked at the work involved, was a driver collection script/tool for the samples.  It's too much work, so I decided against it.  I'll wait for Dev to add it to DA when THEY have time.  Still, a request like that would be appropriate here.

I'll look at that.  I THINK it's related to a known error I'm trying to work-around.  It happens when the SOI task can't find source files to connect to.  Thanks for catching that.  hmmm

If you extract the drivers (to where there's an INF, CAT and other files, NOT exe/msi), then you can just dump them directly in the DriversDB dir, each in its own folder.  the folder name you create will be used as the "friendly name" for the driver. Look at existing dirs in DriversDB for examples.  You can then run the UI once to let it update its database, then close it normally, and you should be good.

DriversDB is in ..\deployment\task handler\driversdb on the NS and the site servers.  i don't know whether the NS replicates any updates down to the SS's, but unless you have a bunch of site servers, this shouldn't be a big deal for you.

my current understanding of the PECTagent is that it doesn't do an SMBIOS scrape to get info like serial, model, etc.  If that's correct, does this add-on fix that and make token replacement work in WinPE? 

Right now I handle it with some fairly simple vbscripts, but it seems i shouldn't have to, as this functionality was already there in the previous version of DS (having basic inventory info available in WinPE).  Having it available made me able to accomplish a lot more with less hassle while in PE when comparing 6.x to 7.1. 

Sorry to keep beating a dead horse, but this is a huge issue for us that's slowed down development significantly.

Hi Thomas

This is nice, I will try it on my test installation.

one question...

is there a way to import drivers to deployanywhere? scripted, unattended... i would like to have the possibility to add multiple drivers whitout using the UI!

Regards

Peter Strunge

Hi, Thomas

First of all i have to say excellent job! Thank you for providing this useful Sample Jobs / Task!

Maybe i missed something but i ran into a problem after trying to edit the:* Scripted OS Install of WIN7Enterprisex64 Job/Task.

Please see attached Screenshots

Thanks

Network23